'So my little set ups are first on the list.' Shiki told himself, speeding towards the Land of Grass.
Always one of his major focuses, the boy's speed was phenomenal.
Be it for travelling, escaping or blitzing enemies, as long as he was the fastest man on the battlefield, the advantage would be his.
And with this blinding speed along with a Nirvana Seal supplying him with enough Nirvana Chakra to turn him into a perpetual motion machine, Shiki did not even take a half a day to travel through the Land of Fire and into the Land of Grass, all the way up to the vicinity of Kusagakure.
Flicker Phantom had been enhanced to such a ludicrous degree that it allowed him to move so fast that it became impossible to detect him with most sensory techniques and physical perception.
The boy had not even bothered to search for a gap in the Kusa shinobis' border and village patrols, he simply went through them so fast and so silently that, even without a concealment jutsu, they were incapable of perceiving his passage.
'Alright, I'm here. Time to locate my targets.' Shiki thought to himself.
'Ryugan' He mentally chanted.
A product of Nirvana Seal: Trancendence's induced evolution, his very own original dojutsu which he simply named Ryugan or Dragon Eye.
Basic and unimaginative but it was mostly because it was not quite at the level Shiki expected from an original dojutsu of his.
It was "just" a greatly empowered Shuigan that shone with purple light instead of crimson.
Currently, it held only two abilities, the first of which Shiki was currently using.
Zenchi, The All Knowing, a rather ambitious name for a single Ocular Jutsu.
An evolution of the boy's sensory and counter sensory abilities, all of which perfectly integrated into his genetic code and fused with his developing dojutsu.
Omnidirectional perception, currently across 10 Km and if focused on a single direction, the range increased to 50 km. Physical and fuinjutsu barriers could not obstruct it, not even those previously capable of blocking Shiki's senses.
As it integrated all of his sensory jutsu, despite being a dojutsu, it could also capture sounds, smells, even tastes and tactile sensations.
Within these ranges, Zenchi was also capable of manipulating the physical, spiritual and any other chakra based sensory ability of targeted individuals or groups, even reaching into their minds was possible to a degree.
But the most exciting part for Shiki was the slight retro and precognition capabilities that Zenchi showed.
It could reconstruct past events over an area but limited to a few days.
Not even close to the Otsutsuki Senrigan but the boy felt his dojutsu showed promise for a greater future.
Speaking of the future, his eyes could also see ahead in time though only a few seconds, using the ability showed him various floating lines like small streams, each representing a possible future he could reach by tracing them.
Once again, it was no Otsutsuki Ten Directions but still . . . Progress!
Back to the present, Shiki's Ryugan could see all of Kusagakure simultaneously, instantly detecting each of his targets.
These targets were the Village Head and the Four Elders which, together with the Warden of the Blood Prison, Hokuzi Castle, formed the leadership body of Kusagakure.
The Village Head was always in Kusa, the Warden was always in Hozuki Castle, it was the Four Elders that were harder to tract, but, with the Second Great War about to explode, Shiki figured all of them would be stationed in the village.
And he was right.
'Bingo. All targets present.' The boy mentally noted.
'Nirvana Art: Underworld Shadow - Void'
Another creation of the last few years, his Underworld Shadow combined with the Spacetime Hole Summoning inscribed in the Gelel Mine Temple, Shiki created a brand new spacetime ninjutsu.
And with it, he sank into his shadow, rapidly flitting across the ground as a massless non-entity, tracelessly invading Kusa.
'Ripping what I want out of their minds without alerting the rest of the village is impossible. That is better left for when the war is in full swing.' Shiki thought to himself.
Underworld Shadow - Void could be used to "jump" incredibly long distances but, the longer the distance, the worse the precision.
Once past a certain range, it wasn't even worth it to try.
However, Shiki could overlap his own shadow with that of an object or even person, "marking" that shadow as a "jump" point, a beacon to guide him.
His goal in Kusagakure was precisely to mark all five of the previously mentioned individuals.
*
'Damn old man . . .' The boy thought to himself.
His shadow circled the Village Head but within every future his Zenchi could perceive, there was none where the old man did not notice his meddling.
The issue was that Shiki could not figure out for the life of him how he was being detected.
Kusa's Village Head was a tall, pale, slim man sporting long, straight, black hair, graying at the sides, lines carrying the vicissitudes of life were carved into his face but his gray eyes still carried a fierce light.
He was a man in his late forties, no longer in his prime but still full of vigor.
Coincidentally, Shiki had never fought a serious battle against anyone beyond their very early thirties.
The boy simply had yet to experience the terrifying instinct, intuition independent of any physical sense that these veterans possessed.
In a profession where men died young, this was an old veteran with plenty left in the tank.
So long as Shiki kept even a modicum of distance and did not try anything, Kusa's village head could not even notice anything was wrong.
Maybe there was some discomfort but that could be easily attributed to the imminent war.
If the boy realized what was happening, perhaps his evaluation of the Third Hokage would have undergone some revision but alas, for the time being, he remained ignorant.
'I'll discuss the event with Mito-sama later, maybe she knows how I was sensed, it's in her area of expertise after all.' Shiki thought to himself reluctantly abandoning his plan to mark the Village Head's shadow.
*
A couple of days later . . .
'Took a little while longer than expected but I've put marks in all places of interest that are easily accessible in the current circumstances.' Shiki thought back on his activities.
The boy left Kusagakure and headed to Hozuki Castle next.
Despite the Land of Grass being a landlocked country, they were still the owners of the prison island despite it being far more accessible from the coastlines of the Land of Iron, Land of Waterfalls and even the Land of Earth.
Something to do with ancient treatises involving ancient nobility, all from a time so far in the past people had mostly forgotten it.
Back then, the Land of Grass was much bigger, its territory stretching all the way to the coastline.
It was said that they even almost conquered the known world using the powers of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, a superweapon from the time of the Sage of Six Paths and Shiki's true target.
Hozuki castle was mapped and marked, however, the boy went around several more countries, leaving marks in several places he judged would be useful to him.
'Right. My setups are done, time for my official task from Mito-sama.' Shiki decided.
'Still . . . to think Mito-sama not only managed to capture some White Zetsu but also extract intel from them . . .'
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -